Monday, January 7, 2013

Small city to be built for vegetarians on Mars

Private space entrepreneur and billionaire
co-founder of Paypal, Elon Musk is planning to build a small city on
Mars for 80,000 space explorers - but only vegetarians are invited!

Musk,
whose Falcon 9 rocket delivers NASA cargo to the International Space
Station, wants to construct a futuristic settlement on the red planet.

The new civilization would run off sustainable technology and cater only to vegetarians, The Sun reported.
Speaking to the Royal Aeronautical Society, Musk, 41, revealed he had been waiting ten years to share his vision.
“Then
it seemed ridiculous because there were no rockets, no infrastructure
and NASA was the only game in town - and it had no schedule for
exploring Mars,” said the co-founder of PayPal, a global e-commerce
business.

“But with my work, and many others working in the private sector, the mission is coming closer to reality,” he added.

“On Mars you can start a self-sustaining civilization and grow it into something really big,” he said.
The
146-year-old Royal Aeronautical Society last November awarded Musk, who
founded his third company SpaceX in 2002, a gold medal for his
contribution to space exploration.

The California-based engineer
has previously talked about sending the Mass Cargo Transport rocket -
powered by liquid oxygen and methane, to Mars - carrying volunteers for
about £3,00,000 a person.

One of America’s most respected private
space entrepreneurs, Musk - worth about £1.25 billion - has admitted
the challenges remain daunting. These include the dangers of deep-space
radiation, bone-rot and toxic dust.
He recommends the size of the new society should be around 80,000 people.

“Too few, and the gene and culture pool dries up. Too many and you risk civil war,” he said.